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Windows 7 - Notices but does not 'see' external usb hard drive

Question

I upgraded from Vista Home Premium SP2 (32Bit) to Windows 7 Home Premium (32Bit) and after the upgrade my external usb hard drive can not be seen. The system notices it when it is plugged in and/or powered on but does not show it under My Computer or any other drive display option.

I have seen other posts about this all without a solution- could I have missed the solution - if so please forgive this posting and please point me in the right direction.

If there hasn't been a solution posted and you know how to solve this issue I am very interested.

The Windows 7 Hardware Compatibility indicates this drive is supported and the upgrade advisor did not object to it.

All replies

Open 'Administration Tools', select 'Computer Management', click on 'Disk Management' and see if it can be seen here. If it does show here, chances are it doesn't have a drive letter assigned. If this is the case, right click on the drive, select "Change drive Letter...', and assign a drive letter to it.

If it was not seen there, go to 'Action' on the menu bar, click on 'Rescan Disks' and it should come up. If necessary assign a drive letter to as described above.

Please Note: The backup file is on the Desktop and named “backup.reg”. We can simply restore the registry by double-clicking the “backup.reg” file.

4. Highlight this key ({36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000} ), on the right pane, and then check if “Upperfilters” and “Lowerfilters” value are present. If so, please right click on the values and select "Delete" to remove them.

Having same problem with 16b usb pen drive. Worked previously on Vista system, still works on other Vista systems, just not being recognized by Windows 7. I checked the registry key mentioned here. I don't have either of the upperfilters or lowerfilters value keys....

I am having a similar problem that is baffling me with Windows 7. I have an external Maxtor USB drive that Device Manager sees as a USB Drive but I am unable to assign it a drive letter and see it in Windows Explorer. In the Disk Management Console it doesn't show up. I've already tried every USB port and cleared the UpperFilter and LowerFilter entries in the registry....still nothing.

had the same problem with a maxtor one touch drive it would not let me assign a drive letter until I installed the maxtor software which came with the drive, luckily i had kept a copy of the software in a usb stick.

you are a Genious!!!! Thanks! I have this seagate external drive that windows would not recognize after I took the computer off of sleep-- and you fixed it!!! Thanks. i went to almost a hundred sites and got 100 answers, this seemed simple and logical.

Hi - i tried your solution (using Windows7 with an Hitachi external drive) but my problem is - the computer sees the new harddrive device , but will not open the drive for viewing OR At step 7 - would not uninstall, just keeps running. This worked with my Maxtor drive (which had the problem of not ejecting after i had tried to use the Hitachi). this Hitachi flaw requires me to force a shut down "manually" and this is setting off alerts. Any ideas of what the problem could be?

I still have problems with external drives mounting on Win 7 but with no drive letter attached don't know the reason and the same drives on xp computers are no problem.

there has to be something about how windows 7 mounts drives and remembers drive letters maybe the first service pack will address this issue.

anyway if windows sees the drive but cannot open it make sure you have a drive letter assigned to it. Some of these external drives have a proprietary backup software etc which it requires to be run before the drive can be mounted such as my maxtor one touch..

Hi, I also have a Hitachi that was not seen (same as most every one here) by windows 7 and had no success with any of the methods described. I did however get it to work by using "delete volume" in the disk manager then reactivating the volume. the only problem with this is it re formats the drive.

While doing step Number 7 I can not open the drive. There is only the option of "help", I tried using the HD on a different system. Which did work, I know it is not a USB problem ( the darn things worked on vista). I can see the drive in device manager but I can not open any files nor will it give anything but the "safely remove hardware". Is there any way to open the drive or is this becoming a lost cause with another windows product?

"I could not find my blackberry either. It did the ding and all and still i could not find it. Then I found out that I had my MEDIA TRANSFER PROTOCOL off. So I tured it on and BAM it showed up on my computer.

I searched all day and night to find the solution as to why i could not find my blackberry. I did so many differnt things that these ppl said and then I found a website that said those things needed to be on. So i went into my phone just to check and sure
enough I did not have MEDIA TRANSFER PROTOCOL on. When i tured it on my blackberry showed up right away on my computer.

I'm using window 7 ultimate and the drive I was having trouble with was a 1TB Fantom Green drive.

This suggestion worked for me although initially I didn't think it was. See, when you are viewing Disk Management in the computer management don't only look at the top part of the screen where you see a list of your drives, also look at the list below which
lists your disk as disk0, disk1 etc. My drive showed up there not in the top list. When I right clicked it - it showed me an option to set it as 'online'. Once I did that it was all good. Hope this is helpful.

Update - I had also contacted Fantom support via email and I'm posting their reply.

------------ From Fantom Support ---------------------------------------------------

This is actually a pretty a common issue. When we format the drive here at the factory it is done with an imaging machine. As such, each drive has an identical signature. Windows interprets this as the same drive connected twice.
To product the data is marks one of the apparent drives as "Offline".

To resolve this issue you can simply reformat your drives. If that does not work (or you can't do that) you can mark the drive as "Online" through the
Disk Management console.

Disk Management is divided into two sections. The top section lists
logical disks (i.e., C:, D:, etc.) and the bottom section lists physical disks (i.e., Disk0, Disk1, etc.). Your second Fantom drive may not be showing in the top area, but still show in the bottom area as an "Offline" volume. Simply right-click
the drive and select the "Online" option.

MicroNet / Fantom Drives
(310) 320-0772

------------ (End) From Fantom Support ---------------------------------------------------

Did not work for me, it slike i have an HDD HXD5 320gb, it works on others windows 7 but does not work in my Windows 7 :(

In mines it detects, searches for software and then says it did not find any driver for my HD. please can anyone help with this? & yea, it shows me on Device Manager :S with a yellow caution kinda symbol...

& yea.. i tried updating the driver software using the device manager it tells me there is none available :(

I have an ASUS with Win 7. The manual that come with the picture frame states that this is supposed to be recognized as a USB DISK.

The USB is not recognized at all. I tried the method for the RIGHT-CLICK on MY COMPUTER/MANAGE...etc-It is not shown as a disk; therefore, I can't rename it, etc. Then I tried the copying tect for the 'missing' usbstor.inf but it is NOT missing on my Windows...
I read all the other posts.

I have tried all the solutions on this page and no luck. Incidentally, the drive does not show up in disk management to assign a drive letter too, but windows does recognize it. Windows 7 pro fresh install.

DAMN!!! I WAS TRIPPING BC I HAD ALL MY FLASH PROJECTS AND OTHER HOMEWORK ON THAT DRIVE N WINDOWS WOULDNT RECOGNIZE IT!! U WERE ON THE MONEY FOR SOME REASON WINDOWS7 DIDNT ASSIGN A DRIVE LETTER TO IT THANKS A MILLION!!

I was having the same problems with my acomdata PureDrive. I tried a couple different things. First I followed the procedure above that Lionel provided, but that didn't work for me. Next I went to Disk Management. I couldn't see the drive in the top window
pane, but in the bottom pane I could see a drive that was blank (it appeared as a Dynamic Drive). After moving all the files from the external drive to my desktop I right-clicked on the blank drive in the lower pane and chose "Make basic drive",
then I right-clicked on it again and chose "Format" and it finally appeared. I am assuming it should be a NTFS drive.

Now it appears in My Computer and Disk Management, as well as Device Manager.

Had the same problem as the first post - "The system notices it when it is plugged in and/or powered on but does not show it under My Computer or any other drive display option" - when I bought a new computer with Win 7 as the OS. I wanted to copy stuff
from the old 'puter hard dive so I used an external drive patch cord. Nothing worked. Then I remembered having the same sort of problem on a Red Hat system with a flashdrive. I used a shorter USB cable and there was the drive! Everything worked
OK and I was able to copy over my old files. Don't know why I had the problem inasmuch as I have used that cord & adapter many times before but that was the problem. Sounds simplistic but you might give it a try.

This helped me so much thank you this got my device working that lets me connect IDE or SATA internal hard drives as an external one and it got my raid working which i was wondering why it was not visible to windows.

I have the same problem and none of the above solutions work. I have a Toshiba ALU 3.5" 1TB that works fine on my old mac and another macbook but not on my Toshiba Satellite L670-117 that I purchased yesterday. It sees it as a device but it isn't listed
as a drive in My Computer so I can't access any of the files on it.

I've uninstalled it from device manager and turned it back on and nothing changes. In Disc Management "Mark Partition as Active" and "Change Drive Letter and Paths" are greyed out so I can't click them.

The hard drive is a couple of years old and according to the box is only compatible with OS up to Vista. Could this be the issue? I've installed the most up to date driver available for it.

This is what worked for me after trying many of the solutions offered above. I wish I could claim the credit but this was originally posted by GANKS on one of the MS websites mentioned above. Hope it works for you. If it does and you have asked the question
on other forums then please post the solution on those forums too and help to spread the knowledge.

Cheers

**************************

Symptoms:

USB shows in the device manager (right click on my computer and click manage, devices) either "Unknown USB device" or "name of USB hard drive manufacturer" both of which have the yellow ! next to them saying they aren't installed correctly.

Resolution:

Right click on the device in the device manager that shows it isn't installed, click update driver software, enter this location assuming your C drive is your main drive

"C:\Windows\winsxs" and ensure the box is checked to include subfolders and hit ok. It should reinstall immediately and show up as a new drive in "My Computer"

You may have to uninstall the device first, replug it back in and then run through the above steps.

I have tried all the solutions on this page and no luck. My external hard drive Transcend 320GB isn't being recognized by my PC. When i go to device manager I get the error: Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code
43),
My system is Windows 7 pro - fresh install. Do you have any idea?

After clicking "Manage discs" I had blue bars for old discs and black bar for new unseen disc. I right clicked, did not get the menu described above but had the option to make a simple partition (or less simple but in different words). Windows then suggested
size, format and drive letter. I accepted defaults, the bar turned blue and explorer recognised the disc.

Same problem with my brand new Toshiba Satellite notebook PC with Windows 7 installed. External drive is Hitachi, which worked fine for years on my old Lenovo laptop / Windows XP.

Yes, the new PC 'notices' the drive but does not recognise it or assign it a letter, nor can I open it. Driver update didn't work. Also, there was an uncomfortable clicking sound coming from the external drive when plugged in, as if the PC was trying
to access it but unsuccessfully.

The solution was supremely simple and it worked for me on my systems. It may not work for everyone though.

My new PC has 2 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB 3.0 port. I have no idea what the difference is between the two.

Since I need to plug in lots of gadgets, I got a 4-port USB hub. My mobile broadband modem uses one of the PC's USB 2.0 ports. The USB hub goes into the other USB 2.0 port, and my mouse goes into one of the hub ports. And I had plugged my
external drive into the USB hub. Then I got the problem. Nothing! Couldn't access or open the external drive.

Updated the driver for the external drive, did that from the old PC. Back to the new PC, still nothing, same situation.

So I took out the 4-port USB hub from the new PC, and plugged the external drive directly into the PC's USB port. And, lo and behold, I was in business again!! Everything worked beautifully, the way they should. Without having to do any kind of
reconfiguration, workarounds or system tweakings.

Even tried plugging the external drive directly into the PC's USB 3.0 port. Worked fine too!

Maybe Windows 7 doesn't recognise devices which are connected to the PC's USB ports with more than one connection.

Haven't tried it yet but it may also be possible to include the external drive as a device added to a network or homegroup. I can see and access the external drive from my new PC, if it is plugged into my old PC. The old PC is part of my network
(through LAN cable) which was created on the new PC with Windows 7.

I uninstalled as you sugested but when it reinstalled one message came up such as

MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ880AS USB DEVICE failed << did not insstall

CODE - 8024402F << sometimes my update does not want to update (WINDOWS UPDATE) and i get this code as well

Everything worked fine on my HOME EDITION of VISTA but my WIndows 7 does not wish to read the files although i do see them and I am 100% able to burn disk but i have to use my internal DVD drive to read them or watch the movies

I had a similar problem with a new Kingston 16gig USB pen, it showed up in "Disk Management", "Devices and Printers", and the USB icon came up in the "System Tray" (although it didn't display the device just 3 dots), but not in the "Computer" console.

I tried every thing here but nothing worked.

here is an easy work around i figured out to the problem.

FIRST! insert it into a USB port and make sure it shows up in "Disk Management", "Devices and Printers"

and the USB icon shows up in the system tray (even if it wont display the device name when you click the USB icon, it may show 3 dots),

if it is showing up in all 3, click on it in "Disk Management" and see if it has a drive letter,

if it hasn't got a drive letter set it to "Z:\".

then right click it in "Disk Management" and select either "Open" or "Explore"

if it will open and you can see the files on it, then this may help as a quick fix for the time being.

1) with the USB pen in a USB port, open the "Devices and Printers" control panel, double left click its icon to open it's properties,

click on "Hardware" tab, highlight it and open its "Properties", set its "Policies" to "Quick Removal",

this way you can insert and remove it with out causing any problems to it, close its properties.

2) open "Computer Management" console, click on "Disk Management" right click its entry, and change its drive letter to "Z",

if you haven't done so already.

3) right it click again and select either "Open" or "explore"

4) if there are no files on it create a folder and call it "Files", right click and hold the folder then drag and drop it onto the desktop, and select create shortcut, rename the shortcut to "USB PEN".

5) right click the shortcut and select "Properties" in the "Shortcut" tab, change both the "Target" and "Start in" paths to "Z:\".

(changing the "Target" and "Start in" paths to "Z:\" will prevent windows asking if you want to delete the short cut, if you click on it when the USB pen is not in the machine, instead nothing will happen.)

6) open "Computer" now either copy and paste or move the shortcut to the "Favorites" folder in the left pan of the "Computer" console panel.

7) with the USB pen in a USB port click the shortcut and see if it opens the USB pen.

if it opens the pen you can now delete the folder we created on it to make the shortcut.

hope this helps.

"Just when you think your winning the rat race, along come faster rats"

Had the same problem as the first post - "The system notices it when it is plugged in and/or powered on but does not show it under My Computer or any other drive display option" - when I bought a new computer with Win 7 as the OS. I wanted to copy
stuff from the old 'puter hard dive so I used an external drive patch cord. Nothing worked. Then I remembered having the same sort of problem on a Red Hat system with a flashdrive. I used a shorter USB cable and there was the drive! Everything worked
OK and I was able to copy over my old files. Don't know why I had the problem inasmuch as I have used that cord & adapter many times before but that was the problem. Sounds simplistic but you might give it a try.

I'm actually using ole Windows XP and am having a similar problem. I popped out a circa 1995 laptop hard drive (yes, there were laptops then) and put it into one of those external enclosures that provide a USB connection. (I'd used it before
with other laptop hard drives with no problems.)

After providing power to the hard drive enclosure (5V) I plugged the USB into my current laptop USB. The laptop (Windows XP) detects the hard drive and it even shows up in the Device Driver under Disk drives as "ST9190AG USB Device". If I right
click and select Properties the Device Status is "This device is working properly." However, I cannot access the hard drive, because it does not appear in "My Computer" or "File Explorer". Usually when a device is detected it appears there along
with the C drive, etc. I have tried refreshing. It is a Seagate ST9190AG. I have the manual but I can't figure this problem out.

In my case the solution was: 1.Plug in and turn on the external USB hard drive 2.Right mouse click on My Computer 3.Left click on Manage 4.Left click on disk management 5.Right click on the square area that contains (Disk#) on the lower left portion of
device manager(you will notice in it a small disk icon with red arrow pointing downwards and an "Offline" description beside it. 6.Choose (Online) Thats it. I hope this was helpfull

I just want to share with the community how I solved the problem. I did read all the entries and posts here, and from some other sites. I tried with many of them and nothing solved the original problem: my Iomega USB 2.0 external drive was recognized but
not really detected by Windows 7 64-bit. The way I solved it was:
REFORMATTING THE EXTERNAL DRIVE with NTFS. I previously backed up all the information on a XP computer, then reformatted the drive. After that, I could work with the drive.

I know it's hard to spend hours and hours trying different options. That was my experience.

Some time, my pendrive or external HD is disconnected, when reconnect it, not show it under "my computer". Not assign letter. Any partition software can see it, but cannot assign a letter. Device manager show it, but cannot populate a volume.
This issue persist until reboot the system. No driver problem, is only a disk manager problem. Under Manage -----> Storage ---> Disk Management not show the disk. I have a lot of diks (5 HDD) and 3 external drives.

Find the USB device for your USB Hard Drive (in my case it was the one that had no description)

Right mouse click - Uninstall

Turn off the external USB hard drive

Turn on the external USB hard drive and let it find and install the driver

It should work

Lionel B. Dyck

I have currently come across the issue that was resolved with this method. I have a Manhattan 2.5" Hard Drive Enclosure for a hard drive that was taken out of my old laptop. A friend has a device that can check the health of hard drives, and we were able to
determine that the actual drive is still good. When I upgraded to Windows 7, though, my hard drive is no longer recognized by windows. It makes the sound showing that it notices when the enclosure is plugged in, but it does not show the drive in computer or
any other listing. I've tried this method in an attempt to fix this issue, but was unsuccessful. Any idea how to fix this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I used Linda Yan's solution and it fixed my problem. My question now is, should I backup the registry to restore that key modifier or just leave it out? The system seems to be running fine without it and nothing is complaining. I only had the lowerlifters
value, but I'm wondering why it was there if it isn't needed and what if any, exposure I have without it.

This is what worked for me after trying many of the solutions offered above. I wish I could claim the credit but this was originally posted by GANKS on one of the MS websites mentioned above. Hope it works for you. If it does and you have asked
the question on other forums then please post the solution on those forums too and help to spread the knowledge.

Cheers

**************************

Symptoms:

USB shows in the device manager (right click on my computer and click manage, devices) either "Unknown USB device" or "name of USB hard drive manufacturer" both of which have the yellow ! next to them saying they aren't installed correctly.

Resolution:

Right click on the device in the device manager that shows it isn't installed, click update driver software, enter this location assuming your C drive is your main drive

"C:\Windows\winsxs" and ensure the box is checked to include subfolders and hit ok. It should reinstall immediately and show up as a new drive in "My Computer"

You may have to uninstall the device first, replug it back in and then run through the above steps.

I got weird problems with the same symptom. Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit recognize USB Hard Disk but can't see the filesystem (NTFS) on it. Disk Manager connecting to Virtual Device... forever and Explorer assign the Driver Letter but show up "WAIT" icon...
forever until you kill it or reboot.

My HDD is Western Digital Green Caviar 2TB, partitioned with classic mode with 1 Primary Volume formatted NTFS in Windows 7. Then I attached it to a Linux NAS via USB port to copy files from NAS, using ntfs-3g drivers that allows read/write to NTFS partition.
Everything runs perfectly until I attached it back to my Windows 7 as above said.

This problems happens to me couples of time with some HDD of other sizes. The only solution is to unload those files to NAS, reformatted and recopy, which takes 1 day.

My HD Player also can see the files on the disk, my Linux NAS can see and read/write as normal, my Ubuntu Laptop can see and read/writes. Only Microsoft Windows 7 can't see it own child.

I am about to convert all my Extermal HDD to Linux Filesystems, but then I have to use VMWare on Windows to read/write external hard disks.

I tried several HDD recovery software but all they are helpless since Windows can't connect to Virtual Device Drivers that talk to NTFS partition.

I had same problem fixed real easy could have kicked myself when i found solution

-in device manager -disk drives- policies- change usbs from quick remove to use the safe hardware remover and then do the same for specific usb- strangly for me it was only my self powered usb ext/int that gave any trouble.-- which should live on your taskbar
in what I think is called the quick launch down right anyway.

I had same problem fixed real easy could have kicked myself when i found solution

-in device manager -disk drives- policies- change usbs from quick remove to use the safe hardware remover and then do the same for specific usb- strangly for me it was only my self powered usb ext/int that gave any trouble.-- which should live on your taskbar
in what I think is called the quick launch down right anyway.

Thanks a lot. It did work perfectly for me. I was very reluctant to upgrade to win 7, but when i did, i didn`t regret it at all. Then came this USB issue and said, oh my gosh...self fulfilling prophecy...funnily enough,my laptop (win7 OS) recognizes all
my USB drives, but my desk doesn`t. Now problem solved.

I'm roughly 99% sure what the answer will be since these are circa 1995 HDDs but I'll ask anyway.... :-P

I tried the solutions in this thread with no positive results. Rather, what I'm facing is in Disk Management, where my only option is to initialize the disk which, of course, defeats the purpose of my "experiment." My only options are "Initialize,"
"Offline," "Properties" & "Help." My desktop has only one IDE port which is connected to one of my DVD R/W drives but that's where I'm thinking of going next. But I am a little worried that it'll just be "same problem, different cable" and that I spent
the afternoon rearranging my desk to crack open my case.....

SMFRAZZA mentions it DOES NOT show up.. it is difefrent from shoiwing up with no name.. what he described is what happens with me..except I couldn't find anywhere th Explorer file where I can delete the upperfilter and lowerfilter..so what now?The only drives
taht show up are my Hard Drive and my CD/DVDRom drives.. it just stopped being ecgnized from one minute to another. I jut swithed it of to 0 and then back to 1 because I was safely removing a pen drive and didn't want to remove the wrong one so I did that
and when I turned it on to 1 again nothing happened. The light switched on and you can feel it working and launching xcept not on the PC..tried every other USB port as well as my uncle's pc.. nothing..

I'm using Windows 7... always did and no problem, but about a month ago..this happened..I have all my pictures and all my important documents on it!

What if I have no clue where I have that CD that came with the drive.. what can I do..mine is a Seagate Iomega Prestige 500GB external drive..

Cannot just assign a dif. letter to a drive that doesn' teven show up on Disk Management or Device Manager..I can see the light on and feel it vibrating like it's working and like it's launching but nothing happens not even as an unknown device..

i have an idea.go to computer management window.check for the USB devices.open it.then search for your USB hard drive.right click on it and uninstall it.then plug out your device and once again plug in. then let it be search.might be it could resolve the
problem.

My Toshiba 320GB portable hard drive is not showing up. Have tried different option mentioned in this forum.

So far, this is the current status:

It is being recognized just with sounds by the computer after plug it in, and the unit is powered up

It is not showing under My Computer.

In Device Manager, under Disk Drives it is shown as "Generic Multi-Card USB Drive"

In Disk Management is not showing up at all

The data that is there is very important, and I will like to save it. Can you tell with the above information if the data is there and is not lost. And also I havent tried the uninstall option of the drive, because I am not sure if doing this I will definitely
loose the data.

This is what worked for me after trying many of the solutions offered above. I wish I could claim the credit but this was originally posted by GANKS on one of the MS websites mentioned above. Hope it works for you. If it does and you have asked the question
on other forums then please post the solution on those forums too and help to spread the knowledge.

Cheers

**************************

Symptoms:

USB shows in the device manager (right click on my computer and click manage, devices) either "Unknown USB device" or "name of USB hard drive manufacturer" both of which have the yellow ! next to them saying they aren't installed
correctly.

Resolution:

Right click on the device in the device manager that shows it isn't installed, click update driver software, enter this location assuming your C drive is your main drive

"C:\Windows\winsxs" and ensure the box is checked to include subfolders and hit ok. It should reinstall immediately and show up as a new drive in "My Computer"

You may have to uninstall the device first, replug it back in and then run through the above steps.

Thank you very much for this one. Works perfectly for my Lacie 500gb. I was have a problem when i was try to connect it on device manager shows like little disk and doesnt works, i was try a lot of times to install and uninstall and i had the same result.

I recently had a similar problem with Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit. I had a Seagate 60GB drive that I had removed from my Gen1 PS3. I installed the drive into a nexStar 3 external 2.5" hard drive enclosure utilizing the USB 2.0 interface.

First, it took forever to get the enclosure to be recognized, at all. I had to take the USB 2.0 cable from my 250GB from my 250GB Seagate FreeAgent Go drive and put the "power only" connector into my rocketfish USB hub and the data/power connector
into a front USB port. At this point, Device Manager FINALLY found a "USB Storage USB Device" disk drive. Yet, there was no disk drive identified in Computer.

I followed the advice given by Lionel B. Dyck above and only succeeded in un- and re-installing the "USB Storage USB Device" driver.

The happy ending is I followed your advice and, after a few trials and errors, I was able to create a dynamic(?) drive that was reformatted into NTFS and mounted as drive L: (vice the enigmatic Disk 7).

I have a Kingston G3 USB Device, however this issue happens with 99% of memory devices I plug into my desktop, running Win 7. Other USB devices works fine, joysticks, printers etc. However the external memories, flash drives all have the same problem in
99% of the times. When plugged in, they do not show in My Computer, checking Device manager, they do show up, however with a yellow triangle. I try updating drivers and troubleshoot, but nothing changes. I check in Control Panel - Device and Printers, and
it is showing there under Devices, and status it is working properly. But as mentioned before I can not access the device. I than checked in Disk management, and I can find the Device in Disk 6, does not have any driver letter attached to it. If I Right Click,
and choose the option to change Drive Letter and Path, I get an error message, which reads: The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close
the Disk Management console, then restart Disk Management or restart the computer. (I have done that but it doesn't help) If I try to Format the disk/flash drive, I get the following message: An unexpected error has occurred. Check the System Event Log for
more information on the error. No options in the Blue Box area is working, if I click in the Disk 6 Box, it allows me to see the properties, and confirms all is working fine. But will not allow me to make any changes to the drives letters. Now this happens
on my factory Win 7 desktop, if I plug the same device in to my laptop it works fine, no issues at all. In the Disk Management section it says: Disk 6- Removable, Online - and size of the disk. The issue is that this is a problem with any external hard drive
I connect to my desktop, with very few exceptions. Please anybody any advice to resolve this problem? (My laptop uses XP op system) I just tried opening XP - mode in my Win 7, virtual computer, and the USB stick is detected there, in XP, but not in Win7.

I had the same issue, where Windows 7 64bit was recognizing the USB device when it was plugged in, and the drive was shown under Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management, but no drive letter was being assigned. Manually right-clicking
on the drive here, and selecting Change Drive Letters and Paths... would allow me to manually assign a drive letter, but that would not solve it for any new USB devices.

I got this reply from another forum, and it worked for me. I don't know why, or what this really does. Would be great if somebody could tell me how to solve this problem permanently, as every new device I put in I have to do this procedure. "Can you right
click on the device in the device manager that shows it isn't installed, click update driver software, enter this location assuming your C drive is your main drive "C:\Windows\winsxs" and ensure the box is checked to include subfolders and hit ok. It should
reinstall immediately and show up as a new drive in "My Computer" " However it did work for me!

guys i have one funny problem and i dont know how to solve it.i have freecom mobile usb drive 160gb the thing is that when i put it on my tv i can see all of my files but with pc the divice status is (Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers
required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52))))i cant see my usb drive to perform format can anyone help
me...

I have a similar problem with my WD1.5TB USB portable HDD. It was working great on Win7 64bit pro for 12 months. Then it just stopped working. There has been a power outage during a thunder storm, not sure if this is when it stopped working. Can see it in
device manager, but not in windows explorer or in powerdesk.

When I open Computer Management and go to disk management, it comes up with a message to initialize the disk. Choosing either MBR or GPT has the same result - The media is write protected. It is not listed in the top section of disk management, but is in
the lower section. It is described as unknown, not initialized and as 2048GB under Disk 2. Where it should have a drive letter, it just gives 2048.00GB and Unallocated. Right clicking on it only gives properties or help. In properties, under Volume it lists:

Disk: Disk 2

Type: Unknown

Status: Not Initialized

Partition Style: Not Applicable

Capacity: 2097150 MB

Unallocated Space: 2097150 MB

Reserved Space: 0MB

I have also tried it with my Asus laptop running Win7 64bit home with the same result.

How can I initialize it, or do I have to use partition software? I really want to recover the data on it and would prefer not to reformat it until then.

THANKS FOR POSTING THIS !!! Upon looking at the Windows\Inf folder I found that I had lost all permission to the folder and it had been locked. I took ownership of the folder, assigned myself full access then pasted your suggested usbstor.inf into the directory.

To those who use this suggestion - you may find that the USB device still does not show in "My Computer". Go to you "Device Manager" > find the USB drive that shows up as a problem - right click and select "update driver". Windows will then scan through
the windows\inf directory for the update.

This suggestion worked on all USB drives that I subsequently used...

Thanks again - I was about to reload my pc after trying "sfc \scannow" showed no files were corrupted.

I know this post is old but I have to say I could kiss you. Been looking for an answer to this for what seems forever (longer than you'd think I should have been). Did your solution and it worked perfectly!

In my case, the issue was my PC. The PC uses a USB hub for the front USB ports. This didn't provide enough power to my WD Passport HD. I moved the HD to a rear USB port (not on the hub) and it worked immediately!

I right mouse clicked on computer, go to manage, disk management, go to the list below that shows the drives, right click on the new usb drive, from there I could assign a drive letter and format the drive, now it works.

I'm having the same problem on my work computers. Frustrating to no end with something as simple as plugging in a USB. I see all of the answers people offer (just follow steps 1 - 8 and if that doesn't work try steps 1a-6b and if that doesn't work...) This
is ridiculous.

None of the solutions in this post work for me. In the end I got it working by taking the files in c:\windows\inf from a working windows 7 machine and copied them to c:/windows/inf (after I backed it up) on the non working machine. I was able
to get the memory stick to work from updating the the driver from c:/windows/inf. Next I tried a another memory still and it showed up as unknown device. The problem was that my registry DevicePath was not set to"%SystemRoot%\inf" , from regedit goto:

thnx thnx thnx trillions of thnx to you....i tried everything to solve my hard disk problem but not wrking any ..u did fabilous work..again heartiest thnx to you....this is the best way to get ur hard disk back ....

since the installation of window 7 my external HDD HXD5 500GB is only seen by the usb and the devices and printers but not in the computer. i have tried all i know and found out that the disk management display disc1 as unknown and not Initialized. Kindly
advise on what to do

This worked for me. I changed out the USB cable to a high speed and connected it to my high speed hub (self powered). No dice at first, but when I copied and pasted the .inf file to windows\inf directory I heard the windows ta-dah on the speakers. Went
to disk management, low and behold there was the drive, "N" that I have been working on seeing for hours. I tried hooking up my long distance USB cable to my remote external hard drive, no dice. I reconnected the cable to the hub with USB 2.0 hi-speed and
the ta-dah sounded. It was two things for me and I did try many of the things on the message board. My advice, don't give up, take a break, smoke em if you got em and try again. Never, ever, give up! Thanks to all!!

Hi there! I'm having the same problems as the first guy here, but the solution you offered isn't doing the trick for me. I've been coping for a while (sending all my files up to internet storage), but my biggest concern is that other devices (especially
wireless keyboards and mouses) won't function either. They work fine on my other computers, but it's a real disappointment to not be able to rely on my main rig. Do you have any other ideas?

Much respect! I thank you a million times for this post. I had just posted a question on the problems I was having with my Western Digital usb drive. This solution was straight to the point. For the first time, I could see the external
drive in My Computer, I could open it to view the files saved in it without having to use a Virtual machine. Yes, thank you and thanks to the originator of the solution - GANKS.

I did almost everything what was suggested in this thread and nothing worked. Until I run Fix It and it told me that there was a problem with one of the drives. I disconnected this drive in the Windows Explorer and since then Windows assigns this
drive's letter to the flash drive. Works like charm.

For those of you shipping files between Mac and Windows machines: Mac formatted drives
should work fine in Win7, but hey, if they don't...

In my case, I was moving projects from a Mac to a PC on a rather anonymous Samsung drive. Tried the
usbstor.inf trick, uninstalling drivers, assigning drive letter (wasn't possible, even though the disk was visible there), and the
regedit/remove filters routine.
Somewhere along the way I spotted the option to reformat the disk, which led me to believe that perhaps, contrary to common sense, my Win7x64 install was unable to read this disc because it was Mac formatted.

So I read up on HFS+ (the format Mac OS X uses) and downloaded HSF Explorer. It's free but only lets you
read files. That said, I'm very happy since it works like a charm, even offering to rename filenames containing characters Windows doesn't support.

Like Phaze_Shift said, buying MacDrive (or reformatting your disk to NTFS format and 'persuading' your Mac to accept it) may be more useful for the long term.

After reading many forums and experiences, I have come to what I think is the best option available. By now I have no doubts that the defects concern a failure of the hard drive material (poor quality) and is a common theme among, as far as I know, all LaCie
drives (I am owner of various products of this brand - and on my way out of this firm).

So, for you souls to happen to be stuck with it and the only thing you want for now is to recover your valuable data, let's focus on that and once achieved, please get yourself another drive for pretty much any other brand available except this LaCie B-S!

The main point here is that once a letter is added, you will be able to see LaCie drive K for instance, in Windows Explorer, but you will notice it is empty, no contents.

The trick is that at least it shows as a drive in Windows, which is exactly what HandyRecovery needs to initiate the scanning of the drive's surface.

On my experience, I was able to recover 100% of the data, since I took immediate action (avoiding sectors been overwritten).

Worst case scenario, you will not be able to recover any file but at least you will see a full directory tree view of the drive, full list of files, directories and its contents, i.e. a visual snapshot of the drive.

Thank you very much Ivan. After scouring the web for days searching and trying everything, this finally resolved my USB driver install problems. I did not have any issues for USB drivers for OLD external hard drives or OLD USB flash drives that
I plugged in a long time ago. Any relatively new USB device would not install the driver properly and would fail. The new device (new to this machine anyway) would ALWAYS end up in the Device Manager under "Other Devices" and would be accompanied
by the yellow error flag.

After reading your instructions, I noticed that my USBStore.inf file was located in the following file path: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\en-US. I also noticed the file was inappropriately named, usbstor.inf_loc. Not sure why or how
that happened.

I copied and pasted your text above, created my new usbstor.inf file, and placed it in the correct file path, i.e. C:\Windows\inf. Viola . . . Worked like a charm.

I had the problem in Win 7 Pro where I could see the USB drive in Device Manager, but not in Windows Explorer. Turned out there was a conflict with shared drive on a Vista machine. Removed the share on the Vista machine and the USB drive appeared
in Explorer.

Under disk drives I have several listed. The hard drive, I suppose is HP USB Device; however, I am hesitant to uninstall that because I find now that nothing happens when I click on documents, pictures, music, as well as computer. Should I try this
solution? I do not know much about computers.

Had this issue and was cracking my head finding the solution. I previously used Diskpart to make a bootable USB drive. After reformat the drive in Diskpart, it went unrecognized in Windows (not showing up in My Computer). But it shows in Computer Management
and Device Manager. The solution is simple. I just right click and assign a letter to the drive and voila! It not appears as normal in Computer window.

I also have the issue of the invisible disk, in Win 7 Pro-32. I have spent a good deal of today on the manufacturer's site which proved to be no help. The drive is less than two years old but isn't even mentioned.

It is a "Silicon-Power" 1TB USB-2 drive.

I have also followed and applied a great deal of the advice given above. A big thanks to all of you. However I am still stuck.

I have tested and proven my USB-2 cables. The disk itself works fine on four other PCs. I have checked out my on-board USB-2 ports with other devices. They all work fine. The PC has two other USB hard drives (2TB) already on it, they work fine off
the same ports.

When I attach the device, the Windows message plays as the pop-up installation message displays. The installation completes successfully - or so it says.

My drive appears in "Devices and Printers". I learn there that it is attached via an "Initio Default controller" - whatever that is.

However it does not appear in Device Manager when I look there. Until, that is I turn on "Show Hidden Devices". Then I can see it as a drive. I attempt to update divers, including with the tricks described earlier. When I switch off "Show Hidden Devices"
it still appears in the list 'i.e. remains visible;

What I also see in Device Manager is a new tree branch for "Initio Combo Device Class" which has a branch for "Initio Default Controller". As mentioned above. So I check out the drivers. All are supposedly up to date.

But ..... What I do not have in Disk Management (in this sea of perfection :-) ) is any entry for my drive either in the top physical disk list or in the detailed boxes blow. with or without a drive letter. A disk Rescan has no effect either.

Clearly I have repeated all of this with many variants over the course of the day. All to no avail.

Logically I should go to the manufacturer, but they are simply no help.

Please Note: The backup file is on the Desktop and named “backup.reg”. We can simply restore the registry by double-clicking the “backup.reg” file.

4. Highlight this key ({36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000} ), on the right pane, and then check if “Upperfilters” and “Lowerfilters” value are present. If so, please
right click on the values and select "Delete" to remove them.

5. Restart the computer to check the issue.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Linda

This solution really works. Thanks Linda the person like me will only go to the forums after trying out all the basic stuffs. This sort of comprehensive and detailed advice always work.

The only difference is that I didn't see it in Device Manager but I could see it in Devices and Printers. I went in there, selected Properties, Hardware tab, Properties, Change Settings (on the General tab), Driver, Update Driver.... then pointed it
at C:\Windows\winsxs

It searched for a while and then came up saying the driver wasn't digitally signed (or something similar to that) and was I sure I wanted to proceed. I said Yes and whammo... there was my drive!